Personal View: My war with online school procrastination and ways I’m trying to win

Procrastination is an everyday issue in many people’s lives, especially students. Ever since online school and quarantine began I’ve started experiencing procrastination a whole lot more than before. In fact I had a lot of procrastination in writing this article you’re reading right now. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to write about and when I did, ironically, I procrastinated and put it off for a while. Don’t get me wrong, I truly do love writing, but sometimes when I sit down in front of my computer nothing comes to my mind and I have no motivation. That’s how I end up not writing anything at all until 11:30 in the afternoon on Friday. Because I’ve been procrastinating everything lately I figured it would be a good topic to write about, I’m also adding some ways I’m trying to fight it so enjoy reading about some of my struggles.

According to The Random House College Dictionary, to procrastinate is to defer action or put off till another day or time. In other words instead of doing it now you tell yourself things like: “I’ll do it tomorrow’ or ‘I’ll do it in like an hour don’t worry.’ If you’re like me, it reaches that hour you said you’d do it and you either forget or you ignore the time and continue whatever you were doing before. In an article written by Charlotte Lieberman on The New York Times, she says “Self-awareness is a key part of why procrastinating makes us feel so rotten. When we procrastinate, we’re not only aware that we’re avoiding the task in question, but also that doing so is probably a bad idea. And yet, we do it anyway.” I definitely notice that rotten feeling she mentions as well as the awareness that it’s not smart to put this activity off everytime I procrastinate. Because of this we have to find ways to fight the enemy.

Earlier I said that I would tell you some ways I’m trying to win my war against procrastination. I’ve started a few new attempts at not procrastinating this week, but I’m going to be completely honest with you, two out of the four things I came up with did not work for me. The two things that did work for me, really did help me get things done. Although those other two didn’t work for me maybe they will for you so here are some things you could try.

Number one, which worked for me, is to focus on your finish and reward yourself when you reach it. For example, think about if you finish you can do something you enjoy all day instead of homework.

Number two, did not work for me, turn off everything except for what you’re doing, no distractions. This did not help me because I could not seem to focus, when I had things like music or someone to talk to on the phone I stayed motivated as well as in a good mood.

Number three, I also tried setting a time limit, for example, telling myself that I absolutely had to get the thing done by 4 o’clock or I had exactly 30 minutes to do something. This my friends, did not work at all, it only stressed me out.

And the last thing I tried, which ended up working was to set up a routine. Instead of waking up naturally at 11 in the afternoon then slowly making my way to my computer to work 3 hours later because I was forced to, I started setting an alarm for 8 in the morning. Every day I wake up to my alarm at 8, go for a short run of 1 mile, a small ab workout, breakfast, then at least an hour of schoolwork. I have routines for most parts of my life actually, when I’ve been doing those routines for a while they become part of everyday life and I have to do each thing on the list before I continue on.

Although procrastination is a hard thing to overcome, if you work hard enough you can. Come up with and use some things that can help you finish things. Try out one of the things I came up with, maybe they’ll work for you. Online school is a new thing for a lot of us and sometimes it can be a trying task, especially with the demon we call procrastination. We just have to stay strong and figure out a new way to do things to go along with the new way of life. I wish you the best outcome possible if you are also in your own war with procrastination.